Chalco to make first bauxite shipment from Boffa mine by early-December

According to an official from parent and state-owned company Chinalco, Aluminium Corporation of China Limited, popularly known as Chalco, would make the first shipment from its Boffa’s bauxite mine in Guinea by early-December.

Last month, a Chinalco official at the China Mining conference in Tianjin had said the Boffa launch postponed to the first quarter of 2020. But now it is expected to be begun by early-December, producing 12 million tonnes of bauxite each year.

Chen Qi, deputy general manager of Chinalco said at an industry conference, “The mining operation has already started and the first output  to be shipped to China at the beginning of December.”

He also said on the sidelines of the conference that Chalco would finish construction on the first phase of a 2 million tonnes per year alumina plant in southern China’s Guangxi region next year. This plant in the south of Guangxi province, which is close to Vietnam as well, could be a possible destination for Boffa bauxite, he added.

Chalco had 18.86 million tonnes of alumina capacity at the end of 2018, according to the annual report.  By 2020, it is expected to add 4.7 million tonnes of more production capacity, said senior analyst Huo Yunbo at Antaike.

Antaike, the research arm of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, expects China’s total alumina production to rise by 3.3 per cent to 73.98 million tonnes next year.